The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel
Blog #6 MEMPHIS BLUES AND INDY DECISIONS The lesson of this month's BME Top Fuel travel blog: Be careful what you wish for -- you just might get it. Examples? Bill Miller before Memphis: "We need to learn how to get down a hot, slick race track." Hot and slick doesn't even begin to describe the race weekend in Tennessee. Bill Miller before the U.S. Nationals: "Wer'e looking forward to Indy with great anticipation." Unfortunately, so were 26 other Top Fuel teams. MEMPHIS MEMORIES Memphis has many attractions, including Graceland, barbecue and blues. Mild summer weather is not one of this city's Southern charms, however. The O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals was contested in brutal conditions, with temperatures topping 100 degrees. The busiest man at the track was the air conditioner repairman. "We got an education about relative humidity in Memphis," said Miller. "The humidity was in the 30-40 percent range, but the crew guys were sweating rivers of water. Air can hold a lot of water vapor in hot weather. We monitor the atmosphere's moisture content to tune the engine and measured 130 grains of water. That's equivalent to about 95-percent humidity at 80 degrees, so it was the combination of heat and water vapor that caused the conditions to be so nasty in Memphis." This was the BME team's first visit to Memphis and the track was full of surprises. The whoop-de-do's at the top end were more appropriate to a motocross track than a drag strip. A pair of tire-smoking runs in Friday's qualifying sessions continued the team's education in Memphis. Despite a conservative clutch setup, the power-to-traction equation was badly out of balance. A big move to the safe side for the third run proved to be too timid, as the clutch scarcely locked-up before the finish line on Saturday morning. With one last shot, driver Bobby Lagana Jr. ran 5.106 at 232.23 mph to claim the 16th spot. The good news: the BME/Okuma/Red Line Oil Dragster was in the field. The bad news: Lagana had to race the powerhouse U.S. Army Dragster driven by two-time NHRA champion, Tony Schumacher, in the first round. Lagana left the starting line first by .058 seconds in his match with the reigning champ, but Schumacher was quicker to half-track. The Army prevailed with a 4.832/296.37 to the BME team's 5.021/283.61. "We set up our car to make sure it would go down the track," Miller explained, "and if Schumacher had faltered, we'd have been in position to win the race. We accomplished our goal of getting some experience on a very slippery track and we now have some data on a clutch setup that will work on ice." The highlight of BME's Memphis experience was a visit to Graceland, Elvis Presley's palatial home. "You can't understand Elvis' impact until you visit Graceland," Miller observed. " More people watched Elvis' last concert than saw the first landing on the moon. Going to Graceland is like a religious experience for a 61-year-old guy who grew up with Elvis' songs." INDY DECISIONS With 27 Top Fuel entries and 16 available spots, the math said that there were going to be some disappointed racers when qualifying concluded at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The full-time touring teams can be counted on take 13 of the spots, leaving three open seats for the remaining 11 entries. "I told the guys that we had to treat the U.S. Nationals like just another drag race," Miller recalled. "We'd do our best and see what happened. It's not as though you can turn it up another 5 percent for Indy, because you're already on the limit at every race." Lagana ran 4.838/281.30 on his first qualifying run, shutting off early when he saw the glow of Clay Millican's fireball in the adjacent lane and thought it was his own engine. After pitching a blower belt on the second run, Lagana carded a 4.713/299.73 mph run in his third pass which put him 18th on the qualifying list. Sunday's qualifying runs produced a pair of tire-smokers, a 6.583/127.32 on a hot track and a disappointing 13.081/82.94 on the fifth and final attempt when the pilot bearing failed, locking up the clutch just as the car left the starting line. "As a veteran crew chief once told me, it's a minor miracle when a Top Fuel car goes down the race track," Miller observed. "We didn't have any miracles at the U.S. Nationals." The BME Top Fuel team will sit out the next race in Reading, Pa., then rejoin the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series tour for the final four events at Dallas, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Pomona, California. "We'll be racing on tracks which are traditionally pretty good, so we shouldn't have to worry about the clutch setup," said Miller with a gleam in his eye. BME RACE RESULTS O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 19-21 Qualified: No. 16 at 5.106/285.17 First Round: Tony Schumacher (4.832/296.37) defeated Bobby Lagana Jr. (5.021/283.61) Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Indianapolis, Aug. 31-Sept. 5 Qualified: No. 19 at 4.713/299.73 NEXT RACE
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